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Originally Posted by tymejumper
To answer the original question....How do I define the violence that is forbidden? That is an easy one for me. Any and all violence against the most innocent(children) is forbidden violence. .
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I agree with this whole-heartedly
Quote:
Originally Posted by tymejumper
Anything that causes their spirits to shrivel and die is forbidden violence in my book. Rectifiying it by extracting justice against the perpretrator is holy justice.
Not very Buddist like, but can't seem to get past that point on the path.
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Here I diverge, because there is a nonviolent way to more satisfactorily deal with a perpetrator of child abuse. If he were to be made to feel the furthest extent of the suffering he caused the child thereby suffering remorse himself to the point that his new priority is asking forgiveness, he would grow compassion. The violence stops. Hate never puts an to hate. Only love can stop hate. This is the Truth of Budddha.
The problem is our society is largely anti Buddhist in its structure. This technique would likely be effective in ssay, Bhutan but not likely here. We do not have the sufficiently learned Buddhist teachers here to effectively make nonviolence work in this situation. Also some individuals cannot feel remorse or compassion in fewer than 2 years or 20 years or 50 years of teaching. Limit of resources, lifespan and teachers' willingness means this optiion is unavailable for such an individual.
Nonviolencce means not committing violence but it also means not allowing violence. If you allow violence to be done to you you are not practicing nonviolence. But if you defend yourself with violence you are also not practicing nonviolence. In this situation one must choose the lesser of two violent options.
Guess what? Practicing nonviolence is not very easy when you are inexperienced! And the more violent circumstances are the more skill in practicing nonviolence is required.
So we practice and study and learn and teach so that our skills more often yield better results in practicing nonviolence in a world where violence abounds. Maybe someday by enough of us practicing and cultivating nonviolence, Expert skill in practicing it will be developed and predominate over violence rather han the reverse that exists today.